World-class Jazz & Blues on the slopes of Volcan Baru
This was the exciting BJBF 2014 line-up:
(subject to change)
Chris Thomas King, USA
Downchild Blues Band, Canada
Jamie Lynn Fletcher, backed up by Boquete's Fantazy Jazzband
Chuck Beattie, USA with the Boquete Blues Band B3
Rigoberto Coba Big Band, Panama
Sin Ensemble, Latin Jazz, Panama
Andy Egert, with the Boquete Blues Band B3
Panamanian Jazz lady Idania Dowman & The Emotions
Rev. Billy C. Wirtz, USA
Swing en 4, Costa Rica
Special guest: LA Smith, percussion
To learn more about the artists please click on their names on right below.
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Chris Thomas King, Grammy award winner
Like Miles Davis and Bob Dylan before him, Chris Thomas King was originally celebrated as the young savior of an aging musical culture when he first arrived on the national scene. Branded as a rebel King was banned form blues festivals across the United States. He fled to Denmark to cool his heels in the more liberal environment that flourished in Europe. He toured with his Danish band extensively across Europe playing major festivals and theaters but longed to return to New Orleans. King's major acting debut in the Coen brothers' film O Brother, Where Art Thou in 2001 transcended blues and gained him an international mainstream audience. King's "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues" was one of the only few recorded live during filming. The soundtrack reached number 1 on the billboard charts and has since sold ten million copies. King’s performance and the on screen field recording by legendary producer T-Bone Burnett is perhaps the most famous blues performance of all time. King has never played in Panama before. Downchild Blues Band
(Donnie) Walsh has been called the 'father of Canadian blues' and with good reason. He is a blues pioneer on the Canadian scene. It was Walsh who paid the highest dues so that later Canadian blues acts, such as the Jeff Healey Band, the Colin James Band, the Powder Blues, Sue Foley, The Sidemen and The Highliners could also enjoy their success. The Canadian blues scene, which has blossomed nicely in the last few years, was relatively barren in the late 1960s when The Downchild Blues Band first started out. According to Donnie Walsh, more than 120 musicians have been associated with Downchild since its 1969 founding. The band has never lost its focus on blues music. While certain band members have left to pursue what was perceived to be a more lucrative rock music career, Donnie Walsh has a different perspective: "I played the blues then and I play the blues now. That's what I love. ... It's a living thing, it's living music. Blues is serious stuff, it's a heavy kind of music in your soul. You show up with the blues I play, you lighten up. That's what it's all about. It's like medicine." The Downchild Blues Band will be another first for the Panama music scene. |
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Jamie Lynn Fletcher
Jamie hails from the great frozen tundra of Wisconsin, USA. With a Bachelors Degree in International Political Economics and a Masters degree in Broadcast Journalism, Jamie's logical career endeavor was to travel the world playing piano! Music has taken Jamie to over 60 countries, but she loves most her homeland USA where she has played in R&B, cover, and high-end corporate bands from coast to coast, along with freelancing either solo or with her trio. Having been bitten by the sea bug, Jamie has also toured much of this fine planet via cruise ships and conveniently gets wanderlust when the tundra of Wisconsin famously freezes over and every avian species moves to Florida for the winter. Jamie has also performed at 5-star hotels, entertained many dignitaries such as former US President Jimmy Carter, and played with jazz greats such as Arturo Sandoval. At the Boquete Jazz&Blues Festival she will be backed up by Boquete's own Fantazy Jazzband. It will be her first performance in Panama. |
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Chuck Beattie
Long time blues aficionado and music historian, Chuck Beattie (aka Dr. Blues) fronts a Chicago-Style Blues band based in Western North Carolina. Originally from Rocky Mount, NC, Beattie grew up in a household filled with music. He credits his mother, a piano player and teacher, for the inate talent and musical appreciation that has driven him all his life. A member of the North Carolina Jazz Ensemble, Chuck utilizes his knowledge of gospel, jazz, and the sounds of the Delta to draw out the best of Chicago Style Blues. He has shared the stage with many top musicians, among them the great Blues siren Shemekia Copeland. Beattie is dedicated to educating and inspiring young musicians by hosting Blues jams throughout the area, giving new talent a chance to carve out their own place in the Blues. The Chuck Beattie Band has appeared at private parties, festivals, clubs, and music halls, compelling folks of all ages and backgrounds to get up and dance. Chuck Beattie's show at BJBF 2014 will be his first ever appearance in Panama. |
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The Rigoberto Coba Big Band
Rigoberto Coba is a native of David, the capital city of the Panamanian province of Chiriqui located just 38km away from Boquete. Being a professor of music at a David university he is working with various musical formations featuring various musical styles from jazz to salsa, bossa nova and merengue. His show with a 18 piece Big Band that he had specially put together for the 2012 Boquete Jazz&Blues Festival (it was their first-ever public show!) earned so much praise and applause that we just had to invite him back for 2013 for another great show. This band is now a permanent staple of our festival. We're happy to support great local musical talents by giving them exposure to national and international audiences! Sin Ensemble Sin Ensemble is Rigoberto Coba's smaller formation, a quartet featuring some members of his Big Band. Very versatile in their musical styles Sin Ensemble will lead the BJBF New Orleans style street parade, and also perform at the ensuing garden party at the Panamonte hotel. |
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Andy Egert
Winner of the "Best Swiss Blues Band" Award 2010, Andy Egert is one of the hardest working bluesmen of Switzerland and all of Europe and has got a high reputation during the last 20 years. Presenting blues at its best and in the tradition of his great heroes Freddie King, Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Alvin Lee, Johnny Winter, Robert Johnson and many others. The powerful blues and the dynamic live shows have gotten great reviews, also on same stages with Johnny Winter, Stan Webb’s Chicken Shack, Steve Marriott, Bernard Allison, Eroll Dixon, Bob Stroger, Dr. Feelgood, Robert Lucas, Canned Heat, Louisiana Red, Sugar Blue and others! Andy has performed in Boquete in 2012 and 2013, and he's coming back again since people here just love him and his music! For his show at BJBF 2014 Andy will be backed up by Boquete's own Blues Band, the B3. |
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L A Smith - Percussionist
LA Smith has been playing music since he was 7 years old. LA's first instrument was the accordion. After that he studied piano and played countless piano recitals. LA first performed bongos in Greenwich Village's Washington Square in New York City at age 12. By the time LA was 17 he was playing with folk singer, Mary Mac, in sundry New York bars. LA has played with many national headliners such as, Tab Benoit, Chubby Carrier, Michael Burks, Grady Champion, Lightnin’ Malcolm, Calexico, Randy Oxford Band, Mike Zito, Sonny Mormon and Cedric Burnside. LA has jammed with many more great musicians on the Legendary Rhythm and Blues Cruise, to include Coco Montoya, Tommy Castro, Larry McCray, Kim Wilson and Taj Mahal to name just a few. Currently touring with the Randy Oxford band, LA and the band performed at the 2013 Boquete Jazz&Blues Festival. |
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Idania Dowman
Idania Dowman is Panama's own lady of jazz. Having been raised in a musical family (her father "Lord" Byron Dowman is famous in the musical scene of all genres of Panama). Idania started singing as the 1st. voice in the choir of San Vicente de Paul church at the early age of 7. After honing her musical skills in several church choirs for years she turned her interest to more popular music taking part in festivals like the Bolero Festival and in the Afro Antillean Fair together with artists from Trinidad and Tobago, among others. She performed to high acclaim at BJBF 2012 with Carlos Ubarte's band and will return to Boquete in 2014 with her own band 'The Emotions'.
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Reverend Billy C. Wirtz (born 1954, Aiken, South Carolina, United States) is an American blues musician, comedian and writer. His material consists of irreverent comedy routines set to music. His material often mocks conservative politics and religion, described by essayist Hal Crowther as the "Bertolt Brecht of the Bible Belt". His song Teenie Weenie Meanie, described as "a tasteful vignette about a midget lady wrestler" led to a six month long contract as a TBS Monday Night Nitro WCW manager for wrestlers Dennis "Median" Knight, The Nasty Boys, Gigolo Jimmy Backlund, and Diamond Dallas Page.
He created a humorous church known as The First House Of Polyester Worship and Horizontal Throbbing Teenage Desire, and Our Lady Of The White Go-Go Boot, Lord Of The 40-Watt Undulating Bubbling Lava Lamp Apocalyptic, No Pizza Take-Out After Twelve, Shrine Of The Rasslin' Rick Flair ‘WOOOO’ Jesus! Love Tabernacle From Sunny Daytona Florida. Brace yourself Boquete: You're in for a highly interesting and extremely hilarious show! |
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Swing en 4
Swing en 4 is a musical ensemble founded in 1998, in San José, Costa Rica as a modern chamber music ensemble. Luis Monge (acoustic piano, e-piano and composition), Carlos Sanders (drums), Danilo Castro (double bass and e-bass) and Vinicio Meza (tenor sax, clarinet and composition) explore jazz harmonies and rhythms in a brilliant and accessible style, demonstrating an elegant balance of classical, folkloric, electro-acoustic and jazz traditions; while also focusing on the thriving force and richness of African heritage in the Americas. Swing en 4 has performed to high acclaim at jazz festivals in Cuba, Canada and Argentina, as well as toured in Germany and Sweden. They are renown for world class performances consisting of a repertoire that includes own compositions as well as fine arrangements of a wide variety of songs and music works. |
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